Just In Case by Meg Rosoff

Publisher: Puffin

Format: Paperback

Published: 7^th June 2007

Number of Pages: 256

Book: Borrowed From The Library

Genre: Realistic-Fiction, Contemporary, Paranormal, Romance, Fantasy, YA

Recommended Age: 14+

Contains: Violence, Death, Sexual and Alchol References, Swearing

Author's Site: Meg Rosoff

Every minute of every day, a million things happen.

The day David Case saves his brother’s life, his whole word changes.  Suddenly every moment is fizzing with what ifs, and it’s up to David to outwit fate.  Or try to.

He changes his name and the way he looks.  He leaves home and finds himself caught up in a series of strange and extraordinary misadventures.  He even falls in love.

But is David really in control of himself?  And if he isn’t – who is?

Review:

“I can look down across the world and see everything. For instance, I can see you.”

David Case is obsessed with Fate, and trying to outwit him/it.  Everywhere he turns, he can’t help thinking of all the worst scenarios, all the what-ifs.  He’s certain Fate has it in for him.  Just so happens: he’s right.

Just In Case is another great book by one of my favourite authors.  I wish I had Meg Rosoff’s genius mind.  Like all her books, Just In Case was completely different from anything else I’ve read.  Who else would think of using Fate as a character?  I know this has received some bad reviews, and I admit it wasn’t the cheeriest book out there, but it was so full of Rosoff’s quirkiness and brilliance: how could I not love it?

David saves his brother, and that’s when he decides Fate’s out to get him.  He changes his name to Justin – Justin Case (get it?).  To stay hidden, he also has to look completely different.  Makes sense, doesn’t it?  Ok, no it doesn’t.  But Justin-David thinks it will work.  And I did love his whole tortured-thing.  And his imaginary greyhound, oh-so creatively named ‘Dog’:  he was cute!  Even though he was imaginary…  And I still can’t decide whether he’s just paranoid, or whether it’s the world (and Fate) that are the crazy ones…

As for Agnes, the older girl he meets and falls in love with, I liked her.  At first.  Then she did something – to tell would be to reveal – and I just… stopped.  She suddenly seemed cruel and teasing.  But she did get Justin out of his shell, helped him change…

The brother David saved, Charlie, was a little odd.  He tried to telepathically tell Justin things and at one point spelled out a warning sentence, which is a little unbelievable for a child who can barely stand and can’t even talk. 

Our final characters are Peter and Dorothea.  These two I liked a lot.  They were brother and sister, and befriended Justin.  They were also wonderful, and a little weird.  They could see Dog.  Yes, Dog, the imaginary greyhound.  Strange.  I never could figure out why they could see him…

And the strangeness continues with our second narrator, who only appears on a few pages and yet makes a huge impression.  Fate.  It was an absolutely new thing for me.  As I mentioned before, who thinks of using Fate as a narrator?  It was new and unusual, but it worked, really, really well.  Plus, Fate himself was brilliant!  Sure, he was twisted and, well, superior.  But, oddly enough, he was my favourite character.  It sounds strange, but there was something… bewitching about the god-complex-troubled Fate.  (Then again, can you have a god-complex if you’re Fate?)  And even though the question of whether he’s real or some figment of Justin’s imagination didn’t take away from the fact that he was amazing.  But, I asked myself, if Justin made him up, then why can’t Justin hear what Fate is saying…?

This wasn’t Rosoff’s best novel, that I will admit right now.  But it was still Meg Rosoff.  I’ve always loved her writing style: simple and powerful and beautiful, and I could clearly see it in Just In Case.  And the storyline was unlike anything I’d ever seen.  As I mentioned earlier, using Fate?  Pure genius!  My biggest fault was that there was no character development.  I kept hoping that Justin would grow into a bigger and stronger character, but… nothing.  Also, I was left with so, so many questions!  It’s annoying me a little – I want to know why Justin?  Why could Peter and Dorothea see Dog?  Who – well, what – is Fate?  Is he just made up?  Or is he something… more?  Questions, so many questions…

But, overall, I liked Just In Case.  It was new, quirky and had me in its grip.  I just loved how subtly Rosoff played the mental health side of things – made even more powerful by the fact that the sufferer was only a teenager.  She’s a master of difficult issues, and Meg Rosoff really pulled the paranoia issue off perfectly.  I can’t wait for my next book by her: I think it’s one about a teenage couple having a baby… only the baby is a moose…

Star Rating:
3¾ Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff 

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Angel by Cliff McNish

Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

A-Z Reading Challenge (Hosted by Book Junky)

Megan

Happy Reading

Portal by Imogen Rose

Series: The Portal Chronicles, Book One

Publisher: Unknown

Format: Kindle Edition

Published: 20^th January 2011

Number of Pages: 350

Book: Bought

Genre: Time-Travel, Sci-Fi, Romance, Paranormal, Mystery, YA

Recommended Age: 11+

Contains One Incident of Mild Violence, No Swearing or Sexual References

Come Find Me Two Years Ago...

Six words that propelled ice hockey playing tomboy, Arizona, into an alternate dimension.
She suddenly found herself in the past. In one moment she went from being an ice hockey playing teenager in New Jersey to a glamorous cheerleader in California. She found herself transported from a happy life with her dad, Dillard, to a new, strange one living with her mother whom she hates. Apparently it's a life she's always lived in.
Everyone knows her as Arizona Darley, but she isn't. She is Arizona Stevens.
As she struggles to find answers she is certain of one thing- that her mother Olivia, a brilliant physicist, is somehow responsible. .
PORTAL is the story of the repercussions of Olivia Darley's attempt at creating a perfect world for herself and her children. Arizona's quest for answers threatens to undermine the seemingly perfect world that her mother has so carefully constructed.
PORTAL is the first book of the Portal Chronicles. Fans of time travel, romance, and the supernatural will enjoy Arizona's quest for answers.

Review:

Once again, lots of split reviews over this book.  I can see why, now that I’ve read the book.  I loved the idea of the book, and the plot was good, if a little slow at times.  It was the language that bugged me: it was all overly formal, and didn’t flow at all.  And how many 17-or-so teenage boys say:

“I feel tremendous pressure to do so.”? 

It just didn’t sound right to me, and the language went on like that.  For example:

"She is being taken up to x-ray now. She said that she's absolutely fine, but I guess they want to make sure. She is right there on the gurney." 

Does that sound like part of a normal conversation to you?  To me, it just isn’t how someone would speak casually, or naturally. 

That was my only negative point about the book though.  I loved the alternate world side of it, and how one day our protagonist, Arizona, just wakes up and realises she isn’t in her own universe.  She’s no longer a tomboy, but a cheerleader, she has friends she doesn’t know and no idea what on Earth’s going on.  It was just the way Imogen Rose jumps between the first person told from the POV of Arizona and then third person from her mother, Olivia, which I thought was brilliant and worked incredibly well.  And the way she slowly revealed little snippets of information, mainly through flashbacks from Arizona’s mother was pure genius.  Everything just fell into place slowly, and there were twists that knocked me completely off balance.   

I really liked Arizona: she was strong and believably frustrated at suddenly being trapped in an alternate world.  That was completely understandable, though I didn’t really get why she seemed more concerned with ice hockey that with getting back to her own time.  Then again, we all cope in different ways, and I think this was her way of dealing.  I really liked her, and the way she stood up for herself, even feeling sorry for her, and completely confused with her.  The supporting characters were brilliant as well – Kellan, Ella, Ariele and Harry to name a few – although some of them could be padded out a little more.  As for Arizona’s mother, I started off hating her, because that was how Arizona saw her.  But then, with the help of a few flashbacks, I started to realise why.  It was hard to hate her so much then.

I loved the sci-fi romance and the time-travel, wanting to know what was going on just as much as Arizona did.  It took me a while to get into – mainly because I was reading The Hunger Games, which is completely addictive – but when all the twists began, I was hooked.

Portal was not the best written, but the plot made up for it.  I don’t want to give anything away, but the ending was such an unexpected cliffhanger it’s untrue.  Now, I need the next book in the series, because I really want to know what happens next!

Overall, the plot was slow to begin with, but full of mystery and surprises.  I really liked it.  The only drawback: the writing.  Which is honestly such a shame, because otherwise this would have gotten far closer to a 5 from me.

 

Star Rating:
3¾ Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

Trylle Trilogy by Amanda Hocking

My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking

The Seeker Series (Blood of Gold) by B. V. Larson

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)
A-Z Reading Challenge (Hosted by Book Junky)

2011 E-Book Challenge (Hosted by The Ladybug Reads)

Off the Shelf Challenge (Hosted by BA Reading Challenges)

Never Bite A Boy On The First Date by Tamara Summers

Publisher: HarperCollins Children’sBooks

Format: Paperback

Published: 4th March 2010

Number of Pages: 272

Book: Bought

Genre: Dark Romance-Romantic Comedy, Fantasy, Action, Romance, Murder Mystery, YA

Recommended Age: Teen: 11+

When we found the guy and saw the holes in his neck, the cause of death was obvious. 

"It wasn't me," I said.  "I made one mistake and suddenly every little vampire attack is my fault?  That's so unfair!"

But it doesn't matter how much I protest, unless I can prove my innocence I'll be spending the next decade in a padded coffin.

So now I'm on a mission to track down the real murderer.

I've narrowed it does to three suspects.

All acting suspiciously.

All boys.

And all very cute...

Review:

Kira was a sixteen-year-old, newly-turned vampire when she made her little ‘mistake’.  She turned her boyfriend, and now is viewed as a slight risk by the rest of her vampire family.  So when a dead boy turns up on the steps of the school, the cause of death obviously being from a vampire attack, the suspicion instantly falls on her.  And she has to prove her innocence in one week, or she’s going to be sentenced to a couple of centuries in a padded coffin.  Which would not be fun.

It just so happens that her three suspects are all cute boys.  And to find out who the murderer is, she has to get close to them.  But someone has to do it, so why shouldn’t it be her?  Only problem: one of them is a murder vampire.  But... which one is it?  The one she’s falling for?  Well, that could possibly create a slight difficulty in their relationship...

I enjoyed Never Bite a Boy on the First Date, but it was more like a romantic comedy with a twist than a Dark Romance.  It was a light, funny read that was strangely addictive; I actually wanted to know who the murderer was.  And honestly couldn’t guess.

Kira was a brilliant lead girl: she was more-than-slightly insane.  An aspect I love in my characters.  And, even better, she was cheerful, unlike a lot of the heroines we read about today.  She was funny, and I had fun with her: she somehow managed to approach her could-be-imprisonment with a good attitude and humorous air.  Basically, she was light-hearted and made me laugh.  And, yes, she was smart, but her Nancy Drew skills were a little bizarre, to say the least – but, then again, what else do you expect from a girl with green hair?  The only downfall: her ‘teen’ language felt forced at times, she was a little too focused at times on her ‘suspects’ and their pecs than the whole murder.  But overall, I liked her, and think she was a good, strong, completely-bonkers character.

Her boys-slash-suspects was all different and good too.  And, I have to admit, a couple of facts about them completely shocked me, which is hard to do.  And there was a nice mixture: a completely creepy, death-obsessed, kinda unhinged one; a sweet, smiley, perfect one; a second cute one, who’s into mystery solving and has been hanging around in some suspicious places...  Well, who do you think did it?

I liked Kira’s family, especially the free-spirited, scatter-brained Crystal, but they weren’t really the focal point. 

I loved the twist Tamara Summers put on the whole vampire genre: in this they can go out in the sun, if they wear herbal suncream.  It gives them a killer headache, but they don’t “poof” into flames.  And mirrors.   That old myth.  In this, the vamps themselves can’t be seen, but their clothes, hair and makeup can: something I found incredibly cool.

Overall: I really liked this book, but a) it was sometimes a little too much on the lightside at times.  And b) the teen language again!  One minute it’s overly stressed: “My family thinks I did it, which is, like, totally unfair, by the way, because I so totally did not.”  And the next: “I have to figure out who did it by tomorrow or else I’ll be in big trouble.”  How many teens do you know jump from “so totally” to “or else” in a matter of lines?  It just bugged me.

But I loved the humour, the mystery, the mad characters, and found it quite addictive.  So, if you want a light, easy, silly, sweet read with bonkers heroines, lots of boys, vampires and a few mentions to pecs, then I suggest this book.  It’s a good holiday read, in my opinion. 

I’ve taken the ¼ off because of the language conflicts.  Other than that, really liked Never Bite a Boy on the First Date.

Star Rating:
3¾ Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

The Drake Chronicles by Alyxandra Harvey

The Last Vampire by Christopher Pike

Confessions of Georgia Nicholson by Louise Rennison

Gallagher Girls by Ally Carter

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

A-Z Reading Challenge (Hosted by Book Junky)

Horror and Urban Fantasy Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

Vampire Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Parajunkee's View)

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant by Darren Shan

Series: The Saga of Darren Shan, Bind-Up One

Books It Includes: Cirque du Freak

                                                    The Vampire’s 

Assistant

                                        Tunnels of Blood

Publisher: HarperCollin’s Children’s Books

Format: Paperback

Published: Individually Published: 2000

This Edition: 2009

Number of Pages: 512

Book: Bought

Genre: Horror, Urban Fantasy, Action, Children, Children-YA Crossover

Recommended Age: 9+

Darren Shan is an ordinary boy, until he and his best friend Steve visit the weird and bizarre Cirque Du Freak, where they come face to face with a creature of the night.  Then Darren has to confront his deepest fears and sacrifice everything as he enters a darker world to become the vampire’s assistant...

Featuring the first three adventures in the internationally successful series The Saga of Darren Shan.

Review:

 These three books reminded me of that child-like fear of monsters, a time when the fear is more innocent and almost realistic.  I’m not sure what it was about the books, but they just took me back to my first horror novel, that scared me far more than it should have, and haunted my nightmares a little.  Of course, these books didn’t scare me witless, but the writing and the story brought the memories back to me.

This is definitely a book for younger readers – young teens or pre-teens, maybe 9 year olds and above – and I can see why for that age group Darren Shan is known as “The Master of Horror”.  But even if it was quite far below the level that scares me, I actually enjoyed this book quite a lot. 

Darren was a mystery to me: I couldn’t figure out his age.  I saw the movie before I read the books, and pictured Darren as a sixteen-year-old.  But he definitely isn’t in the series.  It bugged me.  Sometimes he’d seem old – but, then again, not surprising after everything he went through – yet he was young enough to get away with drinking blood from his friend’s knee and act like it was a joke.  He also cried a fair bit, and was called “young boy”, yet had a girlfriend at one point.  So confusing!  Also, he wore a pirate-style outfit, which fitted in at the Cirque, but not so much out in public.  Despite the contradictions, I quite liked Darren, he was a good lead boy: smart, resourceful, and brave.  But still can’t get the pirate and the annoying age stiff out of my head... it’s bugging me.

Evra was my favourite character, I think.  Evra’s a snake boy, born to perfectly normal parents, who gave him up, so he’s lived in circus freak shows all his life.  He’s got a good sense of humour, and I love his easy-going personality, and his attachment to his snake.  Also, he’s a really friendly guy who took Darren under his wing, and became his best friend.  I just loved him!

Mr Crepsley’s kind of creepy, and very mysterious.  Although he’s a little harsh at times, and often very distant, I could tell he cared about Darren.  And I loved the way Shan slowly revealed snippets of his past, and of the vampire heritage.

Cirque du Freak, the first in the saga, is mainly for setting the scene: nothing particularly terrifying happens in it.  It introduces all the characters, and presents the world of Darren Shan to us.  Admittedly, this one wasn’t as exciting as the others, and was rather short, but it did set the scene well.  Basically, it explains how – and why – Darren (the character, not the author) becomes Mr Crepsley’s Vampire’s Assistant, and how he deals with the consequences. 

The Vampire’s Assistant starts one or two months after Cirque du Freak, and is about how Darren adjusts to life in his new role at the Cirque.  It’s far more exciting, mainly because of all the brilliant Cirque members, including The Wolf Man (a half human, half wolf mix – and the blend of the two blood has driven him insane.  I don’t even wanna know how he happened), Cormac Limbs (he can grow all his limbs back at will: cool or what?) and Truska (a woman who can grow a beard with a single thought, and make it retract back in as well).  And that is only touching the surface of the group.  They’re just brilliant, and a really tight-knit group.  And then there are the Little People (teeny, carnivorous people who never speak and are somehow connected to Mr Tiny, whose full name is Mr Des Tiny.  Mr Destiny.  Can’t be coincidence), who appeared in this book, and made me wonder who – or what – they are.  I have no idea.  But a good book with laughs in it, along with terror, death and insane eco-warrior.  I’m all for saving the environment, but this man was seriously unbalanced.  You have to read The Vampire’s Assistant to find out what he did, though.

Tunnels of Blood takes place a year or so after The Vampire’s Assistant, and is by far the best.  Mr Crepsley needs to leave the cirque for unkown business, and Darren and Evra have gone with him.  Crepsley disappears at night, leaving Darren and Evra to do as they please, but when six bodies turn up, drained of blood, the two boys instantly become suspicious of Crepsley and his bizarre habits.  Could he be the killer?  And if he is, what would they do?  Yes, this one was more exciting by far, although it starts off not-so-scary, really picking up the suspense approximately half way through.  And Darren gets a girlfriend!  Sweet, and very interesting to read about.  Yes, the best by far, full of suspense, suspicion, murder, and “Young Murlough”, who made me laugh.

Other than the age and questionable fashion sense of Darren, there were a few parts that  niggled at me.  These were the fact that too many “!”s were used.  The other is Shan had little snippets at the end of lots of the chapters.  Some made me want to read on to see what happened.  Others gave too much away and made me want to scream “I don’t want to know this!  I want this to be a surprise!  A shock, a twist, build suspense!”  But, no.  I had to put up with annoying teasers that I really didn’t want to know.   Plus, no female leads: so annoying!  It was boys boys boys everywhere.  Admittidly, they were good characters, but still.

The good points outweighed it all, though.  The chapters were nice and short, making me want to read on, the writing was simple and flowed, and overall the book was rather addictive.  I loved the characters, wanted to live in the Cirque, and really liked the way the vampire heritage slowly unfurled.

I'm definately either buying the rest of the series, or getting them out of the library!

P.S. If you’ve seen the movie, does anyone know why it’s American, why the characters are all older?  It doesn’t make sense!

Star Rating:
3¾ Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

The Demonta by Darren Shan

Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan

Horowitz Horror by Anthony Horowitz

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

British Book Challenge (Hosted by The Bookette)

Horror and Urban Fantasy Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

The Vampire Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Parajunkee's View)

Off the Shelf Challenge (Hosted by BA Reading Challenges)

Halo by Alexandra Adornetto

Series: Halo, Book One

Publisher: Atom

Format: Paperback

Published: 2010

Number of Pages: 485

Book: Bought

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal Romance, Angels, Urban Fantasy, YA

Is love a great enough power against evil?

Three angels are sent down to bring good to the world: Gabriel to warrior; Ivy the healer; and Bethany, a teenage girl who is the least experienced of the trio.  But she is the most human, and when she is romantically drawn to a mortal boy, the angels fear she will not be strong enough to save anyone – especially herself...

Review:

I think the main reason I got this book was because of the cover.  And the beauty of the cover was definitely there in the writing.  The way Alexandra writes is so beautiful it’s untrue – definitely one of the most lyrical stories I’ve read.  So, when I finished the book and read a little about the author, I was absolutely stunned that she’s only eighteen years old, and was only seventeen when she actually wrote it.  Some of the words she used and the way her sentences just flowed... I’ve seen adults that aren’t nearly as intelligent as she obviously is.  I loved her way of writing, the way I could actually see everything in my head.  Somehow, Alexandra managed to get in enough description to create pictures in my mind without completely overwhelming me.  I have no idea how she did that, but it absolutely took my breath away.

The storyline was awesome too.  I’ve only just gotten into the angel genre (mainly because of the latest series of Supernatural), but this one was gorgeous.  Three angels are sent down to do God’s work and to rid a town of Agents of Dark.  They start with little things – charity, community service, volunteer work – slowly trying to bring the town love and get them closer to God.  Both Ivy and Gabriel have been on earth before, so this mission is nothing new to them.  For the young, very human angel Bethany, this is her first time, and she’s desperate to savour all the human experiences she can before she goes back home to Heaven.  She falls in love, and thinks her world is perfect.  That, of course, is when the Dark Forces pop up and everything suddenly gets a whole lot more dangerous and ominous...

I really liked this book, and the fact that I could see everything going on inside my head.  The only problem was that I didn’t really feel like I knew the characters as much as I’d like to.  All of them had such potential, and yet I don’t feel they reached it.  It annoyed me, especially as I could see them clearly in my imagination. 

But I loved the storyline, and the fact that these angels hadn’t fallen, unlike other angel books that have been out recently.  The suspense took a while to really kick in, a lot of the book being about Bethany getting used to earth, and then her love for Xavier.  It dragged on a little, and some of the things Bethany said and did during the romance with Xavier bugged me a little.  But I really liked seeing everything for the first time through her eyes: it was all so new and wonderful for her.  It was just little things – sand under your feet, tastes, smells – that you often don’t really notice as much, because you’re so used to them.  Bethany was naive, but at times I felt that made her a little defenceless.  However, I loved how she had no clue about simple slang, and that her elder sister, Ivy’s explanation for MILF was absolutely hilarious.  Her inexperience made for more than one funny moments throughout the book.

Before reading Halo I saw some negative reviews, most complaining about the slow pacing and the fact that Bethany is kind of clingy.  Well, yes the story is not the fastest, and yes, Bethany is a little clingy.  It didn’t put me off reading the book, and I honestly didn’t care all that much about the pace.  As I’ve said before, the writing was so beautiful, the pictures so vivid, the plot so brilliant that I couldn’t care less.  Sure, the minor characters were sometimes two-dimensional, and, yes, the book was a little preachy and religious.  I still couldn’t stop reading, especially after the suspense really kicked in.

Overall, a good read, that definitely has the potential to be great.  I can’t wait for Hades, and just hope that we learn more about the characters. 

Star Rating:
3¾ Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer

Blood of Gold (Seeker Series, Book One) by B.V. Larson

Angel by L. A. Weatherly

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

A-Z Reading Challenge (Hosted by Book Junky)

Horror and Urban Fantasy Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

Off the Shelf Challenge (Hosted by BA Reading Challenges)